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Two felons were convicted by a federal jury on Thursday of robbing four different Whataburger restaurants during a crime-spree in North Texas last year, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Jesse Lee Bell, 32, of Duncanville, and Deundrae Lyndell Miller, 24, of Mesquite, also were convicted of robbing a Jack-In-The-Box restaurant.

Prosecutors said the men also robbed three Dallas area gas stations.

They face up to life in prison during their sentencing, which is scheduled for November.

They were each convicted on four counts of interference with commerce by robbery; one count of attempted interference with commerce by robbery; five counts of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence; and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The string of armed robberies occurred from June 2-24. They were arrested after the final robbery as they tried to flee in a vehicle.

Prosecutors said the pair targeted fast-food restaurants with little or no customers.

Miller pointed a “Western” looking pistol at restaurant employees during the robberies while Bell acted as a lookout, court records said. The men went first for the safe and then the cash register. They then locked the employees in a back room, if there was one.

The men wore some of the same clothes during the robberies including a “SEAL TEAM VI SPECIAL WAREFARE” hat and a Charlotte Hornets hat, prosecutors said.

A Dallas man who used a 17-year-old runaway in his sex trafficking operation was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Ladestro Douglas, 36, also must register as a sex offender and pay one of his victims $136,000 in restitution, authorities said.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn said the case was not about prostitution but about human trafficking through the sale of children, according to prosecutors.

“To call it human trafficking acknowledges the horror of what you were doing,” she said.

Douglas pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children.

Douglas, who also used the name Derek, met the girl online in May 2012 and convinced her to leave her Alabama foster home and travel to Texas. He took photos of her, posted them to commercial sex websites like Backpage.com and drove her to various cities to engage in sex acts, authorities said.

The girl gave Douglas all the money she earned.

Douglas was arrested in June 2012 after the girl told Dallas police officers who responded to a disturbance at a hotel that she had been in a fight with her pimp, according to authorities.

In December 2013, the victim, who had turned 18, and another woman were working for Douglas in Odessa when they met a 16-year-old girl and recruited her in Douglas’ sex trafficking business.

Later that month, Douglas allowed the teen to return home for the Christmas holidays.

After filing the claims, the state sent debit cards in the ID theft victims’ names to addresses controlled by the defendants, who used them to make numerous cash withdrawals at ATMs, court records show.

One of the arrests was made in Dallas, and the others were in Corsicana, which is about 55 miles south of downtown Dallas.

The 25 men and two women — all from Mexico — were convicted in the U.S. of crimes that include DWI, assault with bodily injury, engaging in organized criminal activity, alien smuggling and theft, according to ICE.

All except one are being held in ICE custody.

A woman was released on her own recognizance because she is the “sole care-giver to a small child,” ICE said.

Simona L. Flores, an ICE supervisor over removal operations in Dallas, said the goal is to improve public safety while focusing on the “most egregious offenders.”

False rumors about ICE officers spread on social media during the roundup, she said.

“I want to emphasize that all participating ICE officers acted professionally and compassionately, while also effectively performing their duties,” Flores said. “Our community outreach officer also worked closely with families that were impacted by these arrests.”

In the Dallas area, ICE removed 15,030 unauthorized immigrants from the U.S. in the 2014 fiscal year. About 85 percent of them had criminal convictions, according to ICE.

Ward, who remains free on bond, faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Her sentencing is scheduled for November.

Ward was President and CEO of H.E.L.P.-Ing. Communities Inc., which was incorporated in 2008, records show. Ward, who is not a psychotherapist or a mental health provider, used the Medicaid provider numbers of four licensed counselors without their knowledge to submit false claims.

The bogus Medicaid claims were for individual, family and group psychotherapy sessions that were never performed, authorities said.

Ward also submitted false claims using the Medicaid provider information of a licensed counselor who worked for her, officials said. She billed for psychotherapy services the counselor did not provide for her business.

Ward used the identities of more than 290 Medicaid recipients in her scheme, authorities said. Most of them were children

Her scheme, which earned her more than $887,000, ran from January 2009 to February 2015, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

A Baylor University grad who used the promise of a Texas oil and gas lease investment to live a lavish lifestyle in Central Florida has been arrested by the FBI in North Texas, records show.

Justin Spearman, 27, has been charged with wire fraud in the Eastern District of Texas, court records show. He was arrested on Monday and had his first appearance in court the next day, according to records.

A Florida television news station reported about an investor lawsuit against Spearman, who lived in a mansion in Winter Park, Fla.

A Texas businessman tipped off the feds about the scheme, the station reported.

Disgruntled investors sued Spearman in Orange County, Fla., claiming he stole millions from them with a fake oil and gas investment scheme. A judge in the case ordered Spearman to repay nearly $2 million.

Spearman said in his Linkedin social media page that he is a “petroleum landman/broker” at Justin T. Spearman Petroleum Land Services LLC in Midland, TX. He has held that position since 2011.

He graduated from Baylor in 2010 with a degree in economics, according to his Linkedin page.

A federal judge denied Spearman’s request for a free attorney and ordered him detained until a future hearing, court records show.

“Defendant appeared without counsel and asked the Court for court-appointed counsel because he cannot access his funds,” a docket entry said. “Court reminded Defendant he does not qualify for court appointed counsel and urged defendant to make efforts to engage counsel.”

A Rowlett man has admitted in federal court to mailing more than 400 hoax letters with white powder that created fear as well as security nightmares for governments, schools and businesses in Texas and across the nation, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Hong Minh Truong, 67, was arrested last July for mailing the letters from North Texas beginning in December 2008.

Truong pleaded guilty Friday to five counts of false information and hoaxes. He faces up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the five counts.

Truong, who has been in custody since his arrest, is scheduled to be sentenced in October.

He mailed the letters to cities across the U.S. as well as U.S. embassies abroad, federal officials said.

More than 15 batches of letters were sent. A white powder was included in the envelopes of all but two batches, officials said.

The mailings did not contain toxins or poisons, but each incident wasted taxpayer dollars and diverted emergency resources, authorities said.

They said “substantial governmental resources” were used in the response and investigation.

Among Truong’s targets were: Mi Escuelita Preschool Crossover, in Dallas; Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth; the Empire State Building, in New York City; Fenway High School in Boston, MA; and The Dallas Morning News in Plano.

The letters contained threats against American citizens written in broken English and with references to al-Qaeda, the CIA, Scooby-Doo and Nazis.

Truong told Dallas police in 2002 that he hears voices in his head, an FBI complaint said.

“Truong stated the FBI, DEA, ATF and police are after him and beaming radar into his body,” a Dallas police report said. “Truong stated that the voices are telling him to do things he does not want to do.”

Investigators began looking at Truong after Boston public schools received hoax letters in June 2013, the complaint said.

That school district’s IT department identified a computer in Texas that had visited its website during that time. The FBI learned that Truong was the cable subscriber linked to that computer, the complaint said.

Investigators searched Truong’s trash several times and found evidence tying him to the mailings, according to the FBI complaint.

A co-defendant in the federal corruption case against John Wiley Price has agreed to plead guilty to taking part in a conspiracy to funnel bribes to the powerful Dallas County commissioner, court records show.

Christian Lloyd Campbell signed a plea deal in which he will admit to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning a local government receiving federal benefits, according to court records.

In return, prosecutors have agreed not to seek a prison term of more than three years, records show.

Legal experts said Campbell’s decision is a significant development that gives prosecutors more ammunition in their case against the commissioner.

Campbell also has agreed to testify against Price in the upcoming trial, which is scheduled for January.

A federal judge will have to approve the plea bargain before it is official.

Campbell is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning.

Also charged in the 107-page indictment are longtime Price assistant Dapheny Fain, 52, and his political consultant Kathy Nealy, 61.

Christian Campbell

Price is accused of helping companies win county contracts after they hired Nealy and funneled payments to him through her. Prosecutors say he leaked to Nealy and Campbell confidential county information to help the businesses gain a competitive advantage.

Campbell helped move money to Price, who then rallied support for the companies that were seeking lucrative county projects, authorities say.

Campbell worked for a county information technology contractor and then formed his own firm, Campbell Consulting Group, in 2004. After getting to know Nealy, he became aware that she “exerted improper influence over Price” and that “demands from Nealy were the same as demands from Price,” according to court records filed on Tuesday.

“Campbell understood that paying Nealy and acceding to her demands literally bought influence with Price,” the records said.

Last Monday, an indictment charging an Austin woman with lying to the FBI for her part in the alleged conspiracy was unsealed.

Helena Tantillo, 58, a former executive of a Dallas County contractor, was charged with two counts of making a false statement to law enforcement.

She and Campbell were involved in one case that prosecutors say illustrates how the bribery scheme worked.

Tantillo was managing director of BearingPoint Inc. when the firm bid on a multimillion-dollar contract in 2004 to digitize Dallas County records.

Before winning the contract, BearingPoint hired Nealy and Campbell, who was her associate at the time, records show. Campbell served as a consultant to the firm.

A county selection committee had recommended in 2004 that BearingPoint be eliminated from consideration. But Price persuaded his fellow commissioners to keep the company in the running. Shortly after the vote, Tantillo doubled Campbell’s pay for two months, court records said.

Campbell then gave Nealy a check for $7,500 for consulting services. The following day, Nealy paid Price $2,500, records show.

Price later voted to give the contract to BearingPoint.

After that, BearingPoint hired Nealy as a $4,000-a-month lobbyist and paid her $50,000 under a “marketing agreement,” records show. And Price asked BearingPoint to promote Tantillo, identified in court records as “H.T.,” for pushing to renew Nealy’s contract, according to records.

BearingPoint retained Campbell until February 2007 and Nealy until 2008, federal officials said. Nealy received $197,000 from BearingPoint, records show.

Tantillo told FBI agents when they first interviewed her in 2013 that she didn’t know why she increased Campbell’s pay, according to the indictment.

Tantillo later told agents that Campbell’s $5,000 monthly pay was doubled for two pay periods in order to donate money to a favorite charity of a Dallas County commissioner — not Price — records show. Continue reading →

An indictment issued Wednesday charged him with enticement of a minor, attempted enticement of a minor and possession of child pornography.

The girl was reported missing on March 24 shortly after 1 a.m.

Grand Prairie police drove through her neighborhood to look for her and found a suspicious car parked at the Indian Hills Baptist Church at the 800 block of Tamara Lane, records show.

Officers approached the vehicle and saw two naked people in the back seat as well as a used condom on the ground, records show.

Carr opened the door and “immediately began to apologize and make spontaneous statements that he thought the minor was 21 years old,” a federal complaint said. The girl was the person reported as missing, police said.

She told officers she met Carr online and that they were having sex when the officers approached. Police found another used condom in the vehicle, as well as two condom wrappers, a bottle of lubricant and two mobile phones.

Police found sexually-explicit correspondence between the two on the girl’s phone via the Kik instant messaging application, records show. In the messages, Carr asked the girl if she wanted to have sex with him, and she told him she was 15, according to records.

Lisa Lewis worked for North Texas auto magnate Don Davis for more than 20 years and was his personal assistant for most of that time, helping to manage his personal financial affairs.

But that familiarity with and access to his finances allowed Lewis to secretly steal about $1.7 million from him, federal authorities said. She was sentenced last year to three years and six months in federal prison for mail fraud.

Federal prosecutors in Dallas are continuing to target her assets to help offset her six-figure court-ordered restitution. The U.S. attorney’s office on Tuesday filed a foreclosure lawsuit seeking to take ownership of an Arlington house she owns, records show.

Lewis, 56, managed all of Davis’ investment accounts and personal bank accounts from a computer in the Fort Worth office where she worked, federal court records show. She was a co-signer on his investment account at JPMorgan Chase Bank since 1997, records show.

From 2005 through the end of 2012, Lewis used her “unrestricted access” to Davis’ finances to write three checks per month from his investment account made payable to Chase Card Services for her three personal credit accounts, records show.

Her husband, an American Airlines clerk who died in 2013, used two of those Chase accounts, records show.

To hide the thefts, Lewis made false entries in the accounting software on her work computer, claiming the checks paid expenses related to Davis’ personal investments and/or assets, according to court records.

A judge ordered her to pay $1.1 million in restitution last year, and the IRS placed liens on all of her property.

She has paid $104,532 so far, according to court records.

The U.S. attorney’s office filed court papers to foreclose on the lien on her house on the 800 block of Chaparral Lane, which is valued for tax purposes at $115,266.